'They looked like a bunch of Irishmen who had a night out on the Guinness when they were trying to play Muralitharan' © Getty Images

We had another mismatch in this very lopsided World Cup. So far we had about 45 matches, but I can only recall three really close ones. Sri Lanka have been involved in two and then there was the tie between Zimbabwe and Ireland. Well, Sri Lanka were not involved in a close one, they demolished Ireland much in the same manner as Australia did.

Sri Lanka won the toss and sent Ireland in to bat. Things seemed to be going along quite nicely for Ireland - they got to 28 without any problems and suddenly Maharoof came in and took three wickets in one over. It was quite an amazing over - the first two deliveries were whacked for fours, then he got a wicket, then a dot ball and then two wickets with the last two deliveries to put him on a hat-trick. He wasn't able to quite complete the hat-trick, but he did finish with four wickets for 25 runs, and affected a brilliant run-out, getting the Ireland captain Trent Johnston, when he drove the ball back at the bowler and Maharoof very sharply fired the ball back and hit the stumps, only to find the Irish captain short of his ground.

Muralitharan was the other bowler who did serious damage. He took 4 for 19 from just five overs and the Irishmen really didn't have any idea which way he was going. They looked like a bunch of Irishmen who had a night out on the Guinness when they were trying to play Muralitharan. The Irish team, with top-scorer Jeremy Bray making 20, were bowled out for 77. They wouldn't have even got that far without David Langford-Smith and a couple of lusty blows in the end. Langford-Smith finished on 18, with two fours and a six.

As I mentioned, four wickets to Maharoof and four to Muralitharan. Probably not ideal for Sri Lanka as they probably wanted more batting, but if they did, then when they won the toss, they would have batted first. Upul Tharanga was out for naught, well caught by [William] Porterfield by a delivery that bounced a bit from [Boyd] Rankin and [Kumar] Sangakkara was out for 10 - he is a little short of runs of late as well. Jayasuriya and Jayawardena finished things off in no time at all. Ten overs was all it took them to get to 81, with just the loss of two wickets with Rankin and Langford-Smith taking the two wickets.

So that's the end of Ireland in this tournament, they did a lap of honour and thanked their fans. They have brought a lot to this World Cup, their fans have been good, and I've liked the way Ireland have played their cricket - they have gone out there not as often as minnows do. They have actually gone out there looking to compete against the better sides and its only Sri Lanka and Australia who demolished them.

So Sri Lanka after their, awful performance against Australia have bounced back well, and they safely enter the semi-finals. They will probably meet New Zealand and it looks like it will be Australia to play South Africa in the other semi-final.